This article appeared in American Re- port (Dec. 24, 1971), newspaper of the Clergy and Laymen Concerned. It is printed here slightly abridged. By Fred Branfman and Steve Cohn 4 pats has been some question as to just what the Nixon Doctrine means in practice. Its advocates claim # that it is designed to lead to less Ameri- ™ can involvement abroad, with the U.S. i Providing but material support for friend- ly third world countries fighting commu- nism, Critics charge that it is a rationale for greater U.S. involvement, allowing American leaders greater freedom to intervene in the third world by massive use of air power instead of domestically Nixon unpopular U.S. foot soldiers. ~ No less an authority than Richard Nixon himself has recently provided the key to resolving this controversy. . On Nov. 13, 1971, he stated in a press Conference that ‘‘Cambodia is the Nixon Doctrine in its purest form.” It is indeed. Cambodia was at peace when Richard Nixon took office. Today it nows full-scale war. Unlike Vietnam, unlike Laos, American involvement in Cambodia cannot be laid to Johnson, Kennedy, Eisenhower, or Truman. It is truly Mr. Nixon’s affair, arid he is to be congratulated for taking full responsibil- ty for it. what the Nixon Doctrine really means: (1) Massive use of air power in popu- lated areas — On Dec. 5, 1971, The New “ork Times front-paged a story head- lined “Refugee Problem in Cambodia It ing Officé Says in Study Two Million Have Fled Their Homes.” The two million refugees are one third of Cambodia’s total population, displaced Just a year-and-a-half. It has taken a decade of ground fighting in South Vietnam, for example, to displace one third the population. his tidal wave of human misery is y vec almost entirely to massive and in- 'Scriminate bombing of towns and vil- ges, which has become the Nixon Ad- ministration’s trademark, _ the very Wanton destruction of cities, towns, and Villages” described as a Crime of War in uremburg Principle VI, clause b. Snoul, Mimot, Sre Khtum, Kompong ham, Skoun, Prey Totung — a few of the towns reported destroyed on page 7-4 of the Cornell Air War Study. Recent news- pee reports have lengthened the list: ae Kauk, Baray, Kamphong Thmar, eah Sanday, Tuoi Leap. But such inci- ents mark the relatively few times that ve reporters have happened to observe 3 St-hand bombed-out towns or villages. ast areas of northeastern and northern Fe podia have been inaccessible to the A Stern Press, and the actual number of towns and villages leveled can only be 0 Buessed at, Most observers have echoed such Ports as a New York Times dispatch ted Dec. 2, 1971: i here is growing evidence that the seatts fleeing the countryside not far and artillery fire — most of it American : South Vietnamese — and,not because oust troops are present or because ched battles are being fought by the Let us look then at Cambodia to see Laid to Allied Bombs — General Account- m here do so because of allied bombing ~ Two 11-year old Cambodian guardsmen drafted by Lon Nol regime. doctrine in Cambodia Cambodians and the North Vietnamese invaders. ““‘When the communists came all the houses were still standing,’ said Meas Yat, a farmer who fled the village of Tuoi Leap about 12 miles west of Phnom Penh’s center two weeks ago. U.S. soldiers in Cambodian village &. x a after U.S. bombing. “ ‘But after they spent the night inside the village, the airplanes came and start- “ed bombing, so we all left.’ “Tuol Leap is flattened now except for the railroad station. Meas Yat, his fam- ily, and a number of friends have been wandering up and down Highway Four CAMBODIA: PUREST FORM OF THE NIXON DOCTRINE Refugees 2,000,000 (March 1970-November 1971) U.S. Military aid, FY 1971 U.S. Economic Aid, FY 1971. US. Military Aid, FY 1972 (requested) U.S. Economic Aid, FY 1972 - (requested) U.S. Bombing Tonnage, 1970 U.S: Bombing Tonnage, 197 1 (projected) Immediate Costs, Air War, 1970 Immediate Costs, Air War, 1971 TOTAL U.S. INVESTMENT, 1970-1971 , $185,000,000 $ 70,000,000 $200,000,000 57,000 tons” 99,000 tons” $130,000,000° $170,000,0001 Government Accounting Office Kennedy hearings, April 1971, p. 78 New York Times Dec. 5, 1971 : $141,000,000~ ie ae Cornell Air War Study SS-14 Cornell Air War Study SS-14 Cornell Air War Study Cornell Air War Study $'900,000,000° *All figures on air vsar in Cambodia, as in Laos, are classified. Cornell figures used here are based on highly incomplete data. We assume actual figures are higher. (FY=Fiscal Year since then, camping in fields and in the enclosed yards of pagodas.”’ _ (2) Heavy reliance on local con- scripts and mercenaries — The Nixon Administration has built up the Cambod- ian Army from 30,000 at the time of Sihan- ouk’s overthrow to over 200,000 at last count. It is still growing. This Army is raised, trained, and ‘‘advised’’ by Ameri- can military personnel. And, in addition, the U.S. has had anywhere from 20,000 to 50,000 South Vietnamese soldiers fighting in Cambodia permanently since April 30, 1970. Our Asian allies are suffering enor- mous casualties. No figures are released on Cambodian military casualties, but all reports indicate they are skyrocket- ing; and in the week of Nov. 25-Dec. 2, A.R.V.N. (Army of the Republic of Viet- nam) dead alone outnumbered U.S. killed 439 to 9. Most of these casualties occurred in Cambodia. (3) Total disregard of political, social, or even relief reforms — The recent abol- ition of the Cambodian Parliament and Lon Nol’s reference to the ‘‘sterile game of democracy”’ received wide attention in the world’s press. What is less widely understood, how- ever, is that the U.S. is giving no attention whatsoever to economic, social, or even refugee relief aid under the Nixon Doc- trine. What is called ‘‘economic”’ aid is entirely such war-related acts as supply- ing rice to the Cambodian Army. During the April 1971 Refugee Sub- committee hearings, U.S.A.I.D. (Agency for International Development) admini- strator Meinecke was asked what aid the United States was, giving Cambodian refu- gees. “‘As far as U.S.A.I.D. is concerned they have not asked for aid for refugees, and we haven’t been involved,’ he re- plied. (“‘They”’ is the Lon Nol ‘‘Govern- ment.’’) ‘ Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass), chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Refugees, later noted that ‘‘the U.S. as- sistance to Cambodia, this military assis- ance program, for $185 million and the A.I.D. program for $70 million, there is nothing in that A.I.D. program remotely connected to refugee relief or emergency _ health care.” The situation persists today. The New York Times reported on Dec. 5 that Arthur Rosen, the public af- fairs officer of the East Asian Bureau, “said that it was the Administration's position that ‘since only a limited amount of money is available, we can most ef- fectively focus it on military and econom- ic assistance.’ ”’ The article went on to note Kennedy's charges, based on the Government Ac- counting Office (G.A.O.) report that ‘‘the Cambodian Government’s efforts to cope with the refugee problem have so far been ineffective. . .”’ ~ The G.A.O. report stated that ‘the policy of the United States is not to be- come involved with the problems of civil- ian war victims in Cambodia.”’ This, then, is the Nixon Doctrine: massive automated war from the air, cal- lous-use of Asian soldiers on the ground, and not the slightest regard for democrat- ic form or relief to the hapless victims - of the bombing. There have been leaders as respon- sible as Mr. Nixon for mass slaughter, rape, pillage, looting, destruction, and misery. But few have passed it off with quite so bland a mixture of piety and in- souciance.. Ee “Cambodia is the Nixon Doctrine in ‘its purest form.”’ ee — ne —— Rs ie em amen amare tea